Feeling Warmth, Subtropical Plants Move North

[cal04]

Like a true belle, this city flounces into bloom when the weather turns, its redbuds, azaleas and forsythia emerging like so much lace on a bodice.

But in recent years, plants that thrive in even warmer weather have begun crashing the ball. At the Habersham Gardens nursery, where well-heeled homeowners choose their spring seedlings, a spiky-leafed, sultry coastal oleander has been thriving in a giant urn.

“We never expected it to come back every year,” said Cheryl Aldrich, the assistant manager, guiding a visitor on a tour of plants that would once have needed coddling to survive here: eucalyptus, angel trumpets, the Froot Loop-hued Miss Huff lantana. “We’ve been able to overwinter plants you didn’t have a prayer with before.”

Forget the jokes about beachfront property. If global warming has any upside, it would seem to be for gardeners, who make up three-quarters of the population and spend $34 billion a year, according to the National Gardening Association. Many experts agree that climate change, which by some estimates has already nudged up large swaths of the country by one or more plant-hardiness zones, has meant a longer growing season and a more robust selection. There are palm trees in Knoxville and subtropical camellias in Pennsylvania.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/03/science/03flowers.html?hp

[illinoisprogressive]

1. I live on a border of zone 4 and 5 and have definite 5s in garden.

[dweller]

2. Kudzu's revenge

coming to a backyard near you.


dp

[Poiuyt]

3. Isn't climate change wonderfull?

I can hardly wait for the killer bees to move north. And termites, and new tropical diseases, etc

[Bobbieo]

4. My poinciana flame tree froze to death this year in Yuma -

First frost we have had had in ten years! What is going on?

[lectrobyte]

7. and fire ants and mosquito-borne viruses and kudzu. On the bright

side, uh, wait, there is a bright side, right?

[kurth]

5. Soon, tropical forests in the arctic

just like in the olden days.

[originalpckelly]

6. Yes, indeed, I remember seeing the change in hardiness zones between...

the early 90s and the mid-2000s, and it was astonishing. Whole states have shifted hardiness zones, Nebraska in particular.

[rasputin1952]

8. I want a banana tree in my backyard! And I'm in ...

Nebraska!....:D

[windbreeze]

9. we have palms growing here....and I am coastal Wash state..

where I don't think it's been above 60 yet this spring..
wb

[rasputin1952]

12. I used to work in Renton WA, lived in Tacoma, Kent and

Des Moines. I got out of the Active Army at Ft Lewis, and worked for 12 years at Valley Medical Center in Renton. Used to cross the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and head out your way a couple of times a year to go camping and enjoy the ocean...:D

[windbreeze]

14. yep....so then can you believe we actually have palm trees growing here?

They may be a special kind...but it makes no diff...I would not believe it, if I didn't see it...after all...we do get snow on occasion...and it sure does freeze...yet we have some yards with many of them...(I lived in Tacoma for 16 years..husband was stationed at Ft.Lewis)
wb

[rasputin1952]

15. 16 yrs at Ft Lewis would have driven me nuts!

I loved the area, but the 9th Div was so-so. I was w/the 2/2 Inf in the 3rd Bde. It was the oldest active duty Bn in the Army, originally formed in 1775, and the colors were never retired until sometime in the early 90's. I was happy, in a way, to be in such a unit with an incredible hiostory, but the BN had really become a stinkhole because of poor leadership. The Unit Colors had battle streamers from the Revolution to VN when I was in it...War of 1812, Indian Wars, CW, more Indian Wars, Mexican War, Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, Korea, VN...It was pretty cool to see, but I'm glad I didn't get stuck holding it in a stiff wind!

[Warren DeMontague]

10. Ah, that explains it.

[nealmhughes]

11. Animals too! Damned armadillos have crossed the Tennessee River!

I don't know how the dogs find them, but they are sure stinky and the dogs sure do love to drag them home to show how protective they are. . .
Also some bird species that I have not seen except in books!
And an alligator colony right outside of Huntsville, Alabama! In the Appalachian Mountains!

[symbolman]

13. Wait until those dormant

dinosaur eggs hatch, and roam the earth again.. you think Traffic is Bad NOW, just you wait :)

This sucks, more likely than not, DISEASE is going to be a Major ISSUE, and not just diseases of the plants and animals..